Tang
by Zokka-Jelly
Summary: Tang, the great granddaughter of Toph, Zhea and Anseyto are traveling to find the new Avatar, a young girl named Sleyl. But what happens when the three young royal ambassadors are abducted and vanish?
1. The Arrival

_This is somewhat of a follow up to my cousin's story, "Wasps and Luna moths: Chap 3: A good fight" My thanks to Luthien Snowtail for making want to write! Oh, and Tang's blind! I guess it's genetic… Tang's also older then Anseyto. ;)_

……

I sucked in a breath icy of air, savoring the freshness of it. Being cramped up on the fire-nation retrieval ship for three days hadn't been my idea of a good trip, but blowing up the rogue Southern Raiders ship with Zhea had certainly spiced thing up a bit. Although the cold air was better then the hot, moist air in the ship, I was not happy. My bare feet were tomato-red and numb against the misty white ice, and the only earth was many, many feet deep into the ground… Should I need it, it would take little effort to retrieve it from the ice, but it still made me uncomfortable. Most earthbenders would find it difficult, but I was already a master at only 16.

Without eyesight, I had to rely completely on vibrations. I had a tougher time picking out different people, like Zhea or Anseyto.

Suddenly, I felt large amounts of vibrations and hefty walls all around her. We had arrived in the new Avatar's home, the Northern Water Tribe. I focused every thing on finding a booth to buy leather at, as well as keeping track of Zhea and Anseyto.

"Stop! Take two lefts and a right and we'll be at the training grounds. That's where he is." I felt quite satisfied at my skills; I had sorted through everything and everyone with only my feet until I had found a different kind of vibration; It was sturdy like an earthbender, harsh like a firebender, light like an airbender and of course, smooth like a waterbender.

"Also, think we could stop to get some leather?" I prodded gently.

"Umm, what for, Tang?" Replied Zhea. I hated it when she answered a question with a question like that.

"Hm… You'll see!" I felt a heavy market cart up ahead and guessed they were selling seal hide. Good enough for me!

I approached the cart and asked the poor-looking (That was Zhea's comment, as I wouldn't really know) woman with a full stock and no customers for four strips of leather. I felt her hopeful stance drop to a somewhat tired and worried one. I picked up the leather and dropped an entire pouch full in front of her. As a princess and ambassador, I had no shortage of gold on me. I walked away before the hide-woman could humbly return the excess coins and found a place to sit.

"That was so thoughtful, Tang!" Anseyto and Zhea chorused their words to me.

"Mia mas mughing…" I muttered a few indistinguishable words of embarrassment. I wasn't normally the helping hand type, and whenever I was, Zhea and Anseyto picked on me for it.

"Tang, what _are _you doing!?" As Zhea spoke, I twisted my foot sideways, lifting the hand I wasn't holding the hide in, and brought four metal hunks out from deep under ground, playing them with my fingers until they were shaped like hammers. As the metal was fresh from miles below our feet, it was hot, and I used that fact to mold the hide polished hide I had two straps per foot to keep me off the ground but still able to feel. I had drawn many a strange glance from surrounding folks, who were used t mingling with other benders after the war, but not ones as powerful as me. They crowded around to see what this incredible bender (me) was using her power for. They shrugged and frowned when I simply slid the straps onto my feet. Then, with nothing more for the hammers to do, I stated loudly:

"Four good old fashioned hammers for sale right here!" Apparently, water tribe folks don't get a lot of metal around, so they sold like hotcakes to the highest bidder.

"A lot of hubbabaloo for nothing, no?" Zhea hated delays, and she stood tapping her foot beside me.

"Meh." I chose a simple reply, one that wouldn't start us arguing. With my foot pads on, I felt more sturdy, and led the way to the training grounds.

We wove through the marketplace slowly, and what would have taken no time in an empty street took what seemed like forever in the busy evening. Up ahead, I felt a wall that was weighed down by what seemed to be notes and letters pinned everywhere on the wall. Obviously I couldn't tell who they were to or from so asked Zhea what they were.

"Well, they seem to be letters and notes from parents to student and students to parents." Zhea sounded rather confused.

"Ohhh… That's what they are! This is the bending school, and the students sleep her, so they must exchange letters with friends and family by this wall." I said in answer to her confused tone.

"Well why didn't you say so? Come on, if this is the school, then we should go meet Sleyl!" Anseyto sounded anxious to meet another airbender (although Sleyl hadn't yet learned that he was the Avatar).

"Fine, fine! I'll lead the way, then." I thought of the interesting name that the new Avatar had as I began to open the immense doors unannounced. I pushed on the middle of the doors with hard clay spikes until they swung open for me. I cocked a hip and blew on my fingers as a horde of hodge-podge people eating steaming noodles stared at me with wide eyes. They stopped mid noodle-bite and looked at me expectantly.

"You really know how to make an entrance, don't you?" Zhea hissed quietly as she walked by me. Her arms open wide and her red robes billowing in the slight breeze, she addressed the still-frozen people.

"People of the water nation! I come here today, Princess of the fire nation-"

"Hello! And I'm princess of the Earth Kingdom!" I cut her off with a smirk, how I loved getting on her nerves!

"As I was saying, we are ambassadors Anseyto Hanu of the air nation, Tang Wei-Lei of the Earth kingdom and I, Zhea Rongu of the fire nation! We have come to collect a person precious to this world, if he may, would Sleyl San-Ni come forward?" There were mutters of approval as the benders heard the royal names. No one came forward.

"Is she in that much trouble already?" shouted someone in the room.

"Mahhh! Get the girl out here!" Zhea let go of her diplomacy and let her short temper wreak havoc. Her high pitched, gruff scream sent a flame spurting from her mouth, which fried the nearest noodles crisp.

"Wow, when did you get so touchy?" I risked saying to her. Again, flames spurted from her mouth as she stuck out her tongue at me. I giggled lightly and flicked my finger, sending up a spinning piece of earth which blocked her little flames.

"Step back, Zhea. Cool off, too." Zhea did as I told her, realizing she had gone to far, even after a long time traveling.

"Ok, dudes. Seriously get the guy out here. You all should know I'm a master bender, and if Mr. Sleyl doesn't get his little watery butt out here, he won't even be able to bend his own tears, which I promise he will have once I'm through with him!" My voice escalated until I finished a yell, and Zhea added

"Heck yayaa! She is not kidding!" apparently, my speech had put Zhea in a better mood, because she sounded light-hearted when she spoke. My 'diplomatic' ways worked, because I heard a whimper and every hand in the room flew to a kid in the back with a terrified look on his face. I began to lift my hand in a friendly wave, but the girl said

"Blaaah! Done ert me!" I gestured for her to come up. She obliged quickly, carrying herself over the other students on a little water board until she stood beside me. I made a fist out of earth, which grabbed her by the ear. She whimpered again.

"Now that we've deceived you into thinking she's in trouble, we can tell you this: Sleyl San-Ni, you're the new Avatar!" You could've heard a noodle drop.

3


	2. The Kidnapping

_Thanks for reading this chapter! I hope you'll like this one just as much as the last! _

……

I was sitting in a little room on a little chair with a little table and a little bowl of soup steaming on a little hot pad, speaking with the new Avatar in the back of a school made of ice.

"So… I'm the new Avat-" She was cut off abruptly as I shouted, barely moving my mouth but carrying the sound across multiple rooms.

"Get me more soup! What is this?!? Munchkin land?!" My temper was balancing on the edge of the knife, because my soup was utterly insufficient and Sleyl was continuously asking the _same _question. "So… I'm the _Avatar_?"

A little man (apparently this school was mostly for young kids, because everything was little, itty-bitty, tiny and tinier) came in with a little pot and poured little noodles into my bowl.

"Humph. From me to you, mister, next time use this." I pulled up my hand and out of the ground came a blob of metal. I fashioned it into a big cast-iron pot and tossed it in the little man's general direction.

"Harumph!" Little Man sank slightly and grunted as he caught it.

"Well… Pack up miss, and be ready tomorrow at noon." Zhea had a tired look on her face as she sat across the little table from me and spoke to Sleyl.

"I'll… I'll be ready. Thank you." Sleyl stood, and dismissed herself with a formal gesture of farewell. She placed her two slightly shaky palms together and backed out of the room.

_Fwiiippp… Pluuu… _

I sucked down the remainder of my noodles and said loudly,

"Let's go get some more food!" Zhea and Anseyto both tried to convince me that I had eaten enough and that we should go back to 'Hotel Ice' where we were staying. They both knew that it was useless, because I could eat a pig-cow and still be hungry.

"I can feel a great restaurant down the street! 'The Sheep Lamb Chop'! I'll only be a minute!" They obliged and followed me quietly to the restaurant.

Once we got there, I put on my 'I'm blind, help me! Serve me quick!' thing and was served quickly.

"See! Not so bad, now was it?" There was no reply. I panicked slightly, but regained my sense and stamped my foot hard, sorting through vibrations and weights all through the high ring (rich people ring). I found their weights in two different rooms in the Hotel Ice a couple blocks away. They must have snuck off while I was sitting criss-cross in the restaurant.

"Blegh! This'll serve you right…" I stuck little clay-spikes in their backs, twitching fingers and toes to make them give Zhea and Anseyto 'massages' until they awoke and I dropped the spikes. It was a little tiring to bend earth that far off, but worth it was worth when I felt their weights leap startlingly.

"Tee hee!" I sighed, wondering what I should do next. I felt the steady rhythm of waves as I walked towards the docks. I had an idea, so I used the sand around me to make a board that wrapped around my feet. I jumped into the powerful waves, twisting to keep my balance. I couldn't feel as well on the water, but I had been working on my water-feeling skills, and had been able to work on picking up under water vibrations. I caught a big wave and rode it until it made a cocoon of water around me, with about a foot between me and it. I sucked in the salty, cold air before diving down and twisting around until my lungs screamed and I rose up with a few hard kicks. I broke the surface of the numbingly cold water and swam to shore. I was wading through the last few inches of water and was out to my ankles, shivering, when someone called

"It's not safe! Get out of there! It comes after the people who step in there!" It was a man with a fishing boat docked almost two far for me to feel him.

"What are you talk-" I crashed backwards into the wet, hard-packed sand. The breath was knocked out of me, and before I had taken a full breath I was dragged into the water and submerged fully. I thrashed and wriggled, but what seemed like tentacles were sucking onto my legs, wrapping around me and pulling me down into the blackness that encircled me instantly. Then nothing. My eyes were open, but there was nothing around me. I was numb and feeling-less and I barely heard the shriek of whatever was holding me and saw the water turn red. I barely felt the suction cups release me and the wooden hand-cuffs drift down to my, the ropes they were attached to tugging upwards sharply. Nothing. I felt nothing. Saw nothing. Heard nothing.

……

"She should be back by now! We need to go find her!" It was sundown and Zhea hadn't seen Tang since she had left her at the restaurant to take naps, which she saw now to be rather cruel, and she new that Tang might have panicked.

"She's probably out there having fun and showing off to the towns-people! She's a master bender, just like you or I, and she can take care of herself! Relax, and if you're not going to eat you're fried chicken-pig, then I will." Anseyto ranted on for a while about Tang being fine, and when he finished, she gave a dignified sniff and walked upstairs to her hotel room, untouched fried chicken-pig in hand. She opened her door and locked it behind her, looking out her suite's window to see the emptiness of night envelop the northern world.

……

I twitched and pulled with every bit of strength I had, but I was suspended to far up. I couldn't reach any earth. I would normally be able to, but my struggle with the underwater whatever-it-was had weakened me immensely. My throat was dry and my stomach was empty. My captors new who they were dealing with, so I was hundreds of feet in the air in a wooden box on a wooden pole on a wooden boat. I was not a water-bender, and I was on an ocean. I was not a wood-bender, and I was on a wooden boat. And as far as I knew, there were _no_ wood benders anywhere on this planet. I looked through the little hole in the wood box, feeling like a caged animal. I barely felt the ice-made city standing tall in the distance. My 'sight' of the city faltered each time the tide rushed in to the shore, and with each wave, my 'sight' weakened. I felt my friends fade distantly away. I shed a single tear from one of my sightless eyes.


	3. The Final Kidnappings

_This is chapter three. We start out on the ship that has Tang captive._

……

"So, little girl, you should be thankin' me! That big old tentacle monster would have gotten you! Now, you just stay in this little box of yours until we get to the raider head quarters and deliver you for the purdy ransom I'm being offered!" The man dangled off a rope just outside of my box, peeking in through a knot hole. "I think, if you don't want thirty fleets from every nation chasing down your little wooden butt, you'll let me go!" I strained to pull up the sand from the ocean floor, but it was easily two hundred three hundred feet below me. "Now, Miss, that's a tad bit naughty! My fleets are picking up your fancy friends and they'll be meeting us purdy quick at the head quarters. Bye, miss!" The man dropped down the rope abruptly, disappearing in an instant. "Gahhh!" I hissed quietly. My stomach was grumbling, my throat was parched and I was weakening more every minute. I stamped my foot, feeling for any vibrations of the earth I could bend. I felt a hardy vibration on the deck and opened my eyes wide. It was the vibration of metal, and it felt like the loose shape of a bowl, filled with hot soup that sloshed around. I smirked, lifting and arm and raising the bowl steadily, so the soup inside stayed where it was. I pulled it through the hole in the side of the box, using the bowl to pry the hole until it was big enough to fit my meal through. I slurped my meal down and shaped the metal into a knife, which I used to start sawing through the wood with. Th man I had stolen the bowl from was shouting about how it had flown away from him when I heard another voice. "Idiot! She can bend metal! She could kill us all and run away! Do you want your share of the delivery money?! Gahhh!" I heard the steady _fwiiip, fwiiip, _of a man coming up the rope, and felt that it was the menacing man from earlier, who told me of my 'delivery' to who-knows-who. I hid the knife behind me in a swift flick of my hand. "Oh, don't hide it from me; I know you've got it. It would be such a shame if you're friends got hurt wouldn't it? Ah yes, I see that will get your attention won't it? Now why don't you hand that little piece of metal, and we won't hurt 'em at all. Now, that's it, little girl." I handed him the knife, a scared look on my face, I thought of Zhea and Anseyto, being thrown in a box like mine, without food and water, not knowing where they were headed or where any friendly person might be. I tossed the knife at him, as he had made no move to reach for it. I huddled back in a corner of my box and hid my face in my legs. I had never been a wimp, but the thought of my tortured friends going through the same thing as me made me fearful beyond all imagination.

……

Zhea walked down the road and headed for the beach. She and Anseyto had split up to look for Tang, each going to an opposite side of the city and planning to meet in the center of the sandy shores. I looked out to the water and saw a distant ship on the waves. "Maybe… No." she told herself quietly. A black bag covered her head and she was whisked away into the air.

……

Anseyto saw a lone ship far out on the water. It was too late for fishing… Maybe it was Tang. No. It couldn't be. A black bag covered his head and he was submerged in water.


	4. The Raiders

_Just in case you were confused about the third chapter, the Tang's captors harpooned the giant octopus that had wrapped Tang up. Just clarifying… _

……

I sat rigidly in a corner of the box I was still being kept in. I could feel land coming up close and two boats were trailing us, though I couldn't tell who was in them. I felt the heavy, muscular weight of the captain climbing up the rope hanging near my crate. "See, little girl? In those two ships trailing us, which I'm sure you've 'seen', are your two little friends! Now, we're just about at our destination, and I want you to be on your best behavior. The Southern Raiders have four specially designed prisons for each kind of bender. Yours will be high in the sky, the fire girl's will be in a heavily guarded and thick mud hut and the air boy's will be deep underground. I'm sure you'll have fun there!"

……

_Sorry to cut this chapter short, but I have to fold my clothes now. I'll post more tomorrow._


	5. The Discovery

"Gahhh!" I screamed. I felt pain as I tore at my throat with another loud scream. I had had little water all day, and had been desperately trying to feel for any earth all day. There was none within reach, as I was suspended in a round metal room with a metal roof on five seemingly endless wooden beams.

"Come on…! Budge!" I stomped harder. Suddenly I felt at least two hundred pounds of vibration coming up the ladder outside the locked metal door.

The sturdy man climbing up the ladder had a pebble in his shoe. I quickly thought up a plan that might be able to allow me to escape. I pulled the pebble out of his shoe with a hard twist of my elbow, straining as the man was still far down the long poles holding up her room. I moved the pebble up farther and around where the man could not see it rising up, bringing it up to my room through the peephole in the door. I took it in my hand and sat, playing with it and throwing it around myself.

"Lunch!" The man called. He shoved it through the peephole in the door, waiting for me to grab it away from him. I did so with a swift motion, and dropped it to the floor.

"Go away!" I called.

The prison I was being held in was silent other than the calls of a few lone predatory birds. _That's it!_ I thought with a jolt. I ate my food and stomped my foot, checking for the vibrations of anyone near. After thinking about what to do with the pebble for awhile, it had suddenly dawned on me what would work.

I made a motion with my hands like scraping a rock against a rock and sharpened the pebble to a blade, sawing it back and forth on the metal lock. Nothing. Only hot pricks against her skin that never touched the ground. They burned lightly but the fell with no vibration. With every prick of the sparks that fell, so did my hope. A blade made of fine rock would never do anything against metal.

I collapsed, seeing that outside the sun had long since set. As I hit the floor with a thump, I felt thousands of pebbles beneath her, all around her. What had great granny Toph had said in her children's story about raiding the Fire Nation? Metal was earth.

"Please? No! Nooohh!" screamed Zhea. It had been hours locked in a bone dry room and her nose bled from the lack of moist air. The reason for this was that she was in a solid mud hut with only one hole near the top for distant fresh air. She was in a mud hut underground, and if she attempted to burn her way out, she would burn with it. She had a vague memory of Anseyto lying about ten feet away, and then people digging holes in the ground and literally building a hut around her as she lie there. Then a sharp pain in her head and suddenly nothing.

"What the two-headed-cat-a-gator? This is some hard packed earth!" Zhea's eyes shot up as the earth above her swirled around and flew to the side to reveal Tang hunched over and panting. She held in her hand a hunk of metal shaped into a twirl with sharp edges.

"Tang! How did you do… You can bend the… Metal is…" She stared at tang in shocked awe.

At her side, Anseyto sat on the ground, exhausted.

"I was in the… And there was this thing with all the clay and metal and clay and so little air… And it was just… I'm glad you're okay. And Tang can metal-bend!"


End file.
